1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information processing system and an information processing method for controlling an output mode to be output from an output unit. The invention also relates to a printing apparatus equipped with such an information processing system.
2. Related Art
In the related art, JP-A-2004-25551 proposes a printing apparatus as an example of a large-size printing apparatus that performs printing on a print medium. This printing apparatus includes a plurality of print heads and drive control units corresponding to the respective print heads. The print heads and the drive control units are mounted on a single carriage. The main body of the printing apparatus is provided with a plurality of data processors corresponding to the respective drive control units and a main controller that controls the overall operation of the data processors. Each data processor transfers data to the corresponding drive control unit. Specifically, in the printing apparatus, each print head is provided with a circuit set constituted of one drive control unit and one data processor.
Because the main controller needs to drive the print heads in synchronization with each other, the processing in the data processors may be synchronized. However, since an increasing number of print heads leads to an increase in the control load of the main controller, the main controller itself may conceivably be constituted of multiple print controllers (information processing devices).
In this case, the timing for sending a carriage activation command at a point when the print heads are ready to start performing printing on the print medium and the timing for sending a transport command for transporting the print medium upon completion of the printing operation need to be synchronized between the print controllers. For this reason, one print controller is set to serve as a master (master controller), whereas another print controller is set to serve as a slave (slave controller). When a command received from the slave controller and a command of the master controller are ready, the master controller sends the commands to a drive control device (mechanical controller, etc.) for a carriage system and a transport system. As a result, an ink ejection process of the print heads controlled by the separate controllers and a transport process of the print medium controlled by the drive control device are performed at appropriate timings.
Regarding each of the controllers, when an error occurs in the controller or in a managed section (such as a print head) that the controller manages, the controller outputs an error command including an error code related to the content of the error to a display control apparatus (output control apparatus). For example, when an error occurs in a print head (sometimes referred to as “first print head” hereinafter) managed by the master side, the master controller outputs an error command including an error code indicating the occurrence of the error in the print head and a parameter for identifying the first print head to the display control apparatus. When an error occurs in a print head (sometimes referred to as “second print head” hereinafter) managed by the slave side, the slave controller outputs an error command including an error code indicating the occurrence of the error in the print head and a parameter for identifying the second print head to the display control apparatus.
In this case, the error code included in the error command output from the master controller is identical to the error code included in the error command output from the slave controller. On the other hand, the parameter included in the error command output from the master side (i.e., the parameter for identifying the first print head) is different from the parameter included in the error command output from the slave side (i.e., the parameter for identifying the second print head).
Therefore, the display control apparatus determines that the error command input from the master side and the error command input from the slave side are not the same command. Referring to FIG. 18, a first display region 201 of a monitor 200 whose display mode (output mode) is controlled by the display control apparatus displays error information 202 including the error code included in the error command input from the master side and a message corresponding to the error code, and also displays error information 203 including the error code included in the error command input from the slave side and a message corresponding to the error code. A second display region 204 of the monitor 200 displays details of the error information selected by the user from the error information 202 and the error information 203 displayed in the first display region 201.
In this case, the first display region 201 displays multiple pieces of error information 202 and 203 with identical display (output) contents. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to determine whether multiple errors have occurred in the printing apparatus or only a single error has occurred in the printing apparatus by simply visually checking the first display region 201. This may possibly give the user a feeling of annoyance with regard to the display mode on the monitor 200.